Use of dielectric nanoparticles doped with rare-earth ions for the treatment of melanoma with non-contact exposure to near-IR laser radiation (in-vivo experiments)

Abstract

Excitation of dielectric nanoparticles highly doped with rare-earth (RE) ions by intense laser radiation can lead to their significant heating. This effect can be used to enhance the thermal effect of laser radiation on biological tissues. This work is devoted to study the features of a thermal emission in compounds based on zirconium dioxide doped with various RE ions in order to identify the type of RE ion and excitation conditions that are most suitable for the described application. In-vitro experiments using the particles studied in this work and earlier, showed that the enhancement of the thermal effect of laser radiation is most pronounced for ytterbium-containing particles and radiation with a wavelength of 970 nm. As a result of in-vivo experiments (on mice), the possibility of using ytterbium-containing particles when excited by laser radiation with a wavelength of 970 nm for the treatment of B16 melanoma has been demonstrated.